He was a graduate of Seoul National University with a major in Business Administration.
He started work as a press and lathe operator in 1979 and by 1985 he headed the trade union of Tong-Il Heavy Machinery.
He became Secretary General of the Korean Trade Union Congress in 1993, and from 1999 held the position of President of the Korean Metalworkers Federation.
He has been the head of the South Gyeongsang Province office of the DLP since 2004, and became party president in 2006.
This Korean biographical article is a stub.